Posts Tagged ‘democrats’

Many news outlets covered Univision Communications’ purchase last week of a stake in The Onion, the world’s leading news publication. According to NPR, Univision bought a 40 percent controlling interest in the company, and also acquired the option to buy the remainder of The Onion in the future.

But what’s gotten no attention at all is that Haim Saban, Hillary Clinton’s biggest fan and financial supporter, is Univision’s co-owner, chairman, and CEO. Saban and his wife, Cheryl, are Hillary Clinton’s top financial backers, having given $2,046,600 to support her political campaigns and at least $10 million more to the Clinton Foundation, on whose board Cheryl Saban sits. The Sabans are also generous supporters of the overall Democratic Party infrastructure, donating, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a total of $16.1 million since 1989 to Democratic and liberal candidates, party committees, leadership PACs, and federally focused 527s.

Saban is a rabid supporter of Israel and a business partner of the Murdochs.

Like this:

As Charles mentioned last week, the three remaining major Democratic candidates (Linc Chafee and having bailed, and Jim Webb probably preparing for a third-party run from the right to try to do to Hillary Clinton in the general what he couldn’t in the primary) met on Telemundo for a forum, using the time slot that was supposed to be filled by the third Republican presidential debate. (Univision is carrying one of the Democratic debates in March, which is probably why the Telemundo Democratic event became a forum instead of a debate.)

Greg Sargent has a nice article explaining how the GOP shot itself in the foot with Latinos as the entire party strove to see who could out-Trump Trump in showing their hatred for immigrants:

Republicans are pulling out of their only scheduled debate that would be aired on a Spanish-language TV network. So Democrats may respond by holding a second gathering aired on one.

[…]

But you’d think it would be a good idea for Democrats to try to make this happen. The RNC is claiming there will be another debate scheduled to replace the cancelled one on NBC and Telemundo. But RNC chair Reince Priebus has declined to say whether Telemundo would be included in the replacement debate. Obviously the RNC did not cancel this debate because of the Spanish-language network’s participation; it had many other reasons for doing so. But one consequence of this decision could be that Republicans end up holding no debate aired on a Spanish-language network. If Democrats do add a second such gathering, they would then be able to argue that they are far more interested in communicating with Latino voters than Republicans are, which is a good message for the general election.

Indeed, one of the GOP campaigns — that of Jeb Bush — is actually protesting the decision to cancel the NBC/Telemundo debate, and demanding that Telemundo be reinstated, presumably because Latino outreach would be good not just for Jeb Bush, but for the GOP overall. Guess which GOP candidate isopposing a reinstatement of Telemundo? Yep: Donald Trump. All this comes after GOP establishment types went into full-scale panic earlier this fall over the damage Trump — with his call for mass deportations and suggestion that Mexican immigrants are rapists — may already be doing to the GOP brand among Latinos. And it comes as incoming House Speaker Paul Ryan is renewing his pledge not to act on immigration reform while Obama is president.

Looks like Jeb’s finally realized that he shouldn’t have let himself get panicked by the base’s craving Trump’s blatant expressions of bigotry. The key for him, as it always has been, is to sit back and let Trump suck up all the oxygen to Jeb’s right, killing off all of Jeb’s rivals on the right; then, when Trump fails to advance past Super Tuesday, be ready to pick up Trump’s crestfallen supporters as the last man standing – and, more importantly, a man who won’t scare off moderate voters in the general election. The question for Jeb is if he has any backers left who are going to be patient enough for this strategy to work.

They know it’s unlikely to get very far, but I suspect that they want Republicans to go on record as opposing it — something that might influence how companies like Google and Facebook and Netflix, all of which depend on net neutrality for their very survival, handle the 2014 (and 2016) elections.

Earlier this month I reported how Ohio Republicans were limiting early voting hours in Democratic counties, while expanding them on nights and weekends in Republican counties.

In response to the public outcry, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who intervened in favor of limiting early voting hours in Democratic counties, issued a statewide directive mandating uniform early voting hours in all eighty-eight Ohio counties. Husted kept early voting hours from 8 am to 5 pm on weekdays from October 2 to 19 and broadened hours from 8 am to 7 pm from October 22 to November 2. But he refused to expand early voting hours beyond 7 pm during the week, on weekends or three days prior to the election (which is being challenged in court by the Obama campaign)—when it is most convenient for many working Ohioans to vote. Rather than expanding early voting hours across the state, Husted limited them for everybody. Voter suppression for all!

[…]

Why do Ohio Republicans suddenly feel so strongly about limiting early voting hours in Democratic counties? Franklin County (Columbus) GOP Chair Doug Preisse gave a surprisingly blunt answer to the Columbus Dispatch on Sunday: “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban—read African-American—voter-turnout machine.” Preisse is not some rogue operative but the chairman of the Republican Party in Ohio’s second-largest county and a close adviser to Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Like Pennsylvania House majority leader Mike Turzai, who said his state’s voter ID law “is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania,” Preisse said publicly what many Republicans believe privately—keeping turnout down among Obama supporters is the best way for the GOP to win the 2012 election. That’s why, since the 2010 election, Republicans have devoted so much energy to voter-suppression efforts like limiting early voting hours, restricting voter registration drives, passing voter ID laws, disenfranchising ex-felons and purging the voter rolls.

President Barack Obama has a bleak message for House and Senate Democrats this year when it comes to campaign cash: You’re on your own.

Democratic congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, have privately sought as much as $30 million combined from Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee — a replay of the financial help they received from Obama in 2008 and 2010.

But that’s not going to happen, top Obama aides Jim Messina and David Plouffe told Reid and Pelosi in back-to-back meetings on Capitol Hill on Thursday, according to sources familiar with the high-level talks. It was a stark admission from a presidential campaign once expected to rake in as much as $1 billion of just how closely it is watching its own bottom line.

Messina and Plouffe told the two Hill leaders that there would be no cash transfers to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from OFA or the DNC, at least not before Election Day, the sources said.

If you really want to help the Democratic party become a better party by electing more and better Democrats, skip donating to OFA/DNC and give it straight to the Democratic candidate or candidates of your choice. Who says so? Obama buddy Jonathan Bernstein says so:

If you’re planning on making political donations this year, and you really want your money to help the cause, here’s what you should do: Instead of sinking cash into either presidential campaign, put it where it will really matter — into Congressional or state and local races.

Here’s why: The battle for the House and Senate may well shape up as toss ups, which means that control of Congress is hanging in the balance. This matters just as much, and in many ways more, than control of the White House. The least bang for your buck comes in presidential general elections. Your money will make a much bigger difference in practically every other type of election.

State Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Bethel, was stopped by police last week in the Highland Park parking lot of Planned Parenthood after witnesses observed a gun on his hip, according to a report by the Star Tribune. Hackbarth said he was searching for a woman he met on an online dating website who he thought was with another man.

Hackbarth, who was the author of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, is still married to his wife, although they are separated. Hackbarth had a valid conceal and carry permit at the time he was stopped by police.

Kos points out that while the Wisconsin Democrats have a serious shot at recalling six of the eight Republican state senators currently eligible for recall, the Republicans’ alleged effort to recall five eligible Democratic state senators is essentially doomed:

While Democrats provide regular updates on the progress of their recall petition gatherings, Republicans refuse to give the slightest indication of their progress. So is it a stealth Koch-Brother-funded effort, or are things so quiet on the their front because they have nothing to report?

The five Democrats supposedly being targetted are Minority Leader Mark Miller, Spencer Coggs, Dave Hansen, Jim Holperin and Robert Wirch. David Nir collated presidential results by district (that’s the district number in parenthesis):

Obama McCain Margin

Coggs (6) 89 11 O+78Holperin (12) 53 46 O+7

Miller (16) 66 32 O+34Wirch (22) 57 41 O+16

Hansen (30) 56 42 O+14

Not a lot of territory there for Republicans to mine. Holperin holds the most competitive district, and that was still +7 Obama. The rest are dominantly Democratic. Compare to the targeted GOPers:

Obama McCain MarginCowles (2) 53 45 O+8

Darling (8) 51 47 O+4Harsdorf (10) 50 48 O+2

Olsen (14) 52 47 O+5Hopper (18) 51 47 O+4

Grothman (20) 36 63 M+27Lazich (28) 39 60 M+21

Kapanke (32) 61 38 O+23

See the problem for Wisconsin Republicans? The reason that five of their guys are in trouble in the recall is because they represent Democratic districts. Not only is that important for the recall election itself, but offers petition gatherers a wealth of Democrats to sign those petitions. There are fewer Republicans in those Democratic districts to sign petitions, much less collect those signatures.

The biggest losers on Capitol Hill: the Blue Dogs, who lost over half their warm bodies last night and are now down to 26 members.

The biggest winners: The GOP — but not for long, because of the infighting that’s just erupted. To wit:

The biggest losers on the GOP side: the teabaggers, whose myth of electoral omnipotence got smashed just as hard as the Blue Dogs did: Tea Party Republicans won 36 House races, but lost 76. They also won three Senate seats but lost three other Senate races. Even better, the Republican leadership, via their friends at such establishment GOP mouthpieces as The Daily Caller, are spreading the news of the teabaggers’ electoral leprosy in order to keep Michele Bachmann from thinking she can use her Tea Party Caucus to shake down John Boehner for a leadership gig.

The biggest winners on the Democratic side: The House’s Progressive Caucus, which — unlike the Blue Dogs — is going to grow, not shrink, come January.